On Procrastination and Letting Go

Believe it or not, I’ve had procrastination as my next blog topic for awhile, not only because this post is long overdue. Fast Company had a great article, Get to Work by Meeting Procrastination Head-On, with some quick tips to consider. Basically, to do the following:

declutter and do any tasks immediately that take less than 2 minutes

avoid busy work – stop organizing your to do lists and just do it!

do the heavy stuff instead of pushing that to the bottom of your list

avoid priority dilution (don’t just respond to incoming e-mail!)

This feels like great advice, especially since they are around clever tactics we employ to procrastinate. I often wonder why inboxes are the way they are. Gmail has created a priority inbox to try to help. I flag my e-mails to process them better, moving less urgent e-mails to a “later” folder and highlighting urgent items.

LETTING GO

Another interesting post I ran across focused on the things we hold onto that prevent us from being happier and better. Perhaps it’s appropriate it comes from a site called the Purpose Fairy: 15 Things You Should Give Up to Be Happy. My favorites to think about around the workplace include:

give up your need for control (aren’t all project managers control freaks on some level?)

give up complaining (it’s infectious in a team environment)

give up the luxury of criticism (some times your feedback is more valuable than others. it’s not always necessary to weigh in.)

While you’re letting all of these other things go, what you should hold onto the most is a deep seated feeling of expecting the best out of your colleagues. Especially in matrix organizations, it’s easy to point fingers, place blame or just group co-workers in categories. When things go wrong (or right!) the best course of action is always to expect the best – that person didn’t mean to drop the ball – maybe I forgot to send a reminder – he or she probably has another huge priority project. When you expect your peers have the best intentions, it really creates a more supportive and friendly atmosphere. If you put out that good energy, hopefully the universe (and your co-workers) return it back to you.